Virtual Bride
Virtual Bride (仮想花嫁) is the seventh episode of the Btooom! anime. Synopsis The avatars of Ryōta Sakamoto and Himiko are getting married on the online world of Btooom!, where Ryōta remarks that he wants to meet the real life Himiko. Himiko disagrees and says that she'd rather keep dreaming this way and that she likes Ryōta the way he is online. Ryōta is in the forest and activates his radar, thinking that the people after Himiko are far away. However, a man wielding a knife attacks Ryōta from behind but Ryōta manages to dodge the attack. The man is revealed to be Masashi Miyamoto and he pursues the fleeing Ryōta. After jumping off the cliff's edge, Ryōta wonders why the man chose to attack using a knife instead of his BIMs. Masashi arrives and a confrontation ensures between the two. Suddenly, a Timer BIM is thrown at Ryōta from behind. Ryōta jumps to dodge the explosion, and Sōichi Natsume is seen standing at the forests' edge. As Ryōta realises that Masashi and Sōichi are working together, Masashi knocks Ryōta out. Sōichi rummages through Ryōta's BIM bag and remarks that Ryōta is a murderer after seeing that Ryōta's bag contains three BIM types. Shocking Sōichi with a stun gun, Ryōta makes his escape. Sōichi tells Masashi to go after Ryōta, but Masashi says that he intentionally let Ryōta go, as he realises Ryōta has allies. Although Ryōta takes the longest route back to the abandoned building, Masashi is still able to track him (as he was a former mercenary) and makes his appearance as Himiko is about to leave Ryōta and Taira. Masashi says that he knew Himiko was with Ryōta after he saw Ryōta use the stun gun and demands that she return the BIMs and food which she took. Noticing Mitsuo Akechi's absence, Masashi assumes that Himiko killed him and has his IC chip. Himiko denies having the chip and Masashi says that he will strip search her if he has to, scaring Himiko and prompting Ryōta to confront him. As Masashi is about to stab Ryōta, Taira jumps from behind and tries to grab him but Masashi dodges and slices off Taira's left-hands' fingers. This elicits a cry of horror from Taira and as Ryōta tries to attack Masashi with the stun gun, Masashi kicks Ryōta off the ledge and presumably into the ocean. A scene of Ryōta's and Himiko's online Btooom! avatars holding hands appears and then fades, after which Ryōta wakes up, calling out 'Himiko...' where it is shown he was caught between tree branches and is alive. Making his way back to the ledge on the abandoned building, Ryōta falls to his knees in despair after hearing from a bloodied and crying Taira that Masashi has taken Himiko. Seeing Himiko's cellphone wallpaper, Ryōta makes the connection that the Himiko which was taken by Masashi is also the Himiko he married on the online game of Btooom!. From this Ryōta gains newfound hope. Despite Taira begging for Ryōta to not leave him, Ryōta chooses to leave and save Himiko, promising that he will return. At another abandoned building, Himiko is tied down to a bed. After provoking Masashi, he cuts her arm but is interrupted when both him and Sōichi detect a radar signal. Himiko responds with two signals and another two signals is given in response. Before Masashi and Sōichi split up, Sōichi ingests some drugs which appear to make him more confident and sadistic. Masashi subsequently tells Sōichi to set his Timer BIM to three seconds so that a mess-up becomes unlikely. As Masashi hears an explosion, he does some thinking and jumps to the corridor with his knife, almost killing Sōichi, thinking that Ryōta will appear. The two continue their search for Ryōta. Meanwhile, Ryōta makes it to the room with Himiko and as he opens the door, a Cracker BIM falls. However, Ryōta notices it and catches it, then disables it, breathing a sigh of relief. As Ryōta was the one who disabled the Cracker BIM, it now belongs to him. When Himiko sees Ryōta, she sheds tears of joy. As Ryōta unties Himiko, he asks her if she is the Himiko who he plays Btooom! with, to which she denies (although it is in fact her). As the two escape, they are detected by Masashi. Masashi and Sōichi split up, with Sōichi running off whilst muttering the law amendment on self-defense. Throwing BIM after BIM at Ryōta, which all miss, Sōichi chases Ryōta, all the time assuming Ryōta is unarmed. Before running into a doorway, Ryōta throws the Cracker BIM which hits and kills Sōichi. Upon hearing a gasp, Ryōta looks and sees Himiko being held at knife point by Masashi. Masashi throws a knife to the ground to lure out Ryōta. When Masashi moves away from the knife, Ryōta sees it as a chance to grab the knife. However, Masashi ambushes Ryōta and delivers a kick to his abdomen. Ryōta is thrown backwards and Masashi runs up to him and delivers more blows. The knife falls out of Ryōta's hands, landing point down dangerously close to Ryōta's face. As Masashi bends Ryōta's arm backwards, Ryōta contemplates on his life which was wasted on games and he wished that he could have had the chance to meet the real Himiko. At that moment, Himiko jumps on Masashi but is immediately thrown off. Himiko yells out for Ryōta to run, and Masashi realises Himiko activated a Burning Gas BIM which is attached to a BIM pouch that Masashi is carrying. Before Masashi can throw it away from himself, the BIM explodes. Both Ryōta and Himiko are shown running away but reach a dead end. Ryōta spies an opening above and using the wall as a step, he reaches the opening and gets through. As he pulls Himiko up with him, a severely disfigured Masashi grabs onto Himiko. As Masashi is holding on too tightly to Himiko, Ryōta throws down a Timer BIM. Thinking that he has 10 seconds to disarm the BIM, Masashi goes to pick it up. By now, he realises that it was one of Sōichi's BIM which was set to 3 seconds. Holding onto each other on the floor above, in an embrace, Ryōta and Himiko brace themselves as the BIM explodes. After the explosion, Himiko and Ryōta break apart, both seemingly embarrassed by the embrace. Elsewhere, Gemu Shusaisha is giving a talk to other people who are displayed on screens, saying that Ryōta has won against the more strongly favored Masashi, and that the game has balanced out after the third round. Manga & Anime Differences *The manga has an extended scene on Gemu interacting with his audience. Major Events *Death of Sōichi Natsume. *Death of Masashi Miyamoto. Characters in Order of Appearance #Ryōta Sakamoto #Himiko #Masashi Miyamoto #Sōichi Natsume #Kiyoshi Taira #Miho (on cellphone wallpaper) #Gemu Shusaisha Category:Episodes